Research papers on Colombian history, as well as on sociology and philosophy, have usually resorted to the country's written production as a source of information to better understand matters related to political parties, public administrations, or political, cultural, and economic modernization.However, by focusing those readings on governments and modernity, they have left out and therefore reduced the relevant documents' content and significance instead of establishing -before putting them to whatever use-the nature of the practice that enabled those writings, thus bringing about problems of interpretation vis-à-vis both the relevant texts and their subject matter.The main purpose of this article is to present in more detail the abovementioned diagnosis regarding the interpretation of the country's written production and to point out a space where reflection on the general historical conditions that allowed for such intellectual activity becomes possible.